Real Happiness

Publisher's Summary

Thousands of years prove it, and Western science backs it: Meditation sharpens focus. Meditation lowers blood pressure, relieves chronic pain, reduces stress. Meditation helps us experience greater calm. Meditation connects us to our inner-most feelings and challenges our habits of self-judgment. Meditation helps protect the brain against aging and improves our capacity for learning new things. Meditation opens the door to real and accessible happiness. There is no better person to show a beginner how to harness the power of meditation than Sharon Salzberg, one of the world’s foremost meditation teachers and spiritual authors. Cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society, author of Loving kindness, Faith, and other books, Ms. Salzberg distills 30 years of teaching meditation into a 28-day program that will change lives. It is not about Buddhism, it’s not esoteric - it is closer to an exercise, like running or riding a bike. From the basics of posture, breathing, and the daily schedule to the finer points of calming the mind, distraction, dealing with specific problem areas (pain in the legs? falling asleep?) to the larger issues of compassion and awareness, Real Happiness is a complete guide. It explains how meditation works; why a daily meditation practice results in more resiliency, creativity, peace, clarity, and balance; and gives twelve meditation practices, including mindfulness meditation and walking meditation. An extensive selection of FAQs cover the most frequent concerns of beginners who meditate - “Is meditation selfish?” “How do I know if I’m doing it right?” “Can I use meditation to manage weight?”

What the Critics Say

“Salzberg speaks from experience . . . an extraordinary teacher.” (O, The Oprah Magazine)“Sharon Salzberg has offered a gift of peace to the world.” (Alice Walker)“To those who have taken her courses (like me), [Real Happiness] contains all of the jewels of Sharon’s teachings plus more.” (Ram Dass, author of Be Here Now)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful

Beautifully written and read by the author.

What did you love best about Real Happiness?

I find Sharon Salzberg's gentle words transmitted beautifully in "Real Happiness." As they were in "Lovingkindness." The significant difference is that this audiobook is unabridged, so that all of her loving wisdom and teachings in this book are shared in the audio version. And, as with "Lovingkindness," this is a book to which one can listen while driving, not just while being still with no outside distractions. it has been a wonderful addition to my library, and I enjoy listening to it again and again.

As the listener will likely want to refer back to various sections of the book, particularly the guided meditations, the lack of section titles (simply listed as chapters 1-33) makes this difficult. For example, an example meditation 'chapter' may be only 3 minutes long, whereas a true chapter may be 30 minutes. The meditations are interspersed throughout the book, which is beneficial as they appear in context rather than as a separate physical CD, as would accompany the paperback form. The reader is advised to add title bookmarks to each chapter to assist with navigation.